Departmental Freedom of Information

Sarah Teather: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 his Department received in 2008; and how many of these received a substantive response within 20 days.

Chris Mole: Statistics published by the Ministry of Justice on Freedom of Information in central Government for 2008 show that a total of 1,964 non-routine requests were received by the Department for Transport (based on aggregated quarterly data), 85 per cent. (1,679) received a substantive response within 20 days. 89 per cent. (1,751) of requests were dealt with 'in time', that is within 20 days by meeting the deadline or other permitted extension deadlines.
	The statistics can be found on the Ministry of Justice website at:
	http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/freedomofinformation quarterly.htm
	and copies are available in the Library of the House.